Skip to content
BY-NC-ND 4.0 license Open Access Published by De Gruyter Open Access January 26, 2018

Radial Extension, Prototypicality, and Tectonic Equivalence

  • Stephen R. Shaver EMAIL logo
From the journal Open Theology

Abstract

In his book “Without Metaphor, No Saving God: Theology After Cognitive Linguistics”, Robert Masson describes a metaphoric process by which newly accepted truths emerge: for example, in the assertion “Jesus is the Messiah,” Christians reconfigure the field of meanings associated with an existing concept from the Hebrew scriptures (messiah) by asserting its identification with Jesus. Masson dubs this process a “tectonic equivalence” or “tectonic shift.” In this paper I build on Masson‘s work by examining some of the shifts he describes as tectonic through the lens of the cognitive linguistics concepts of radial extension and polysemy. I propose that a lasting tectonic shift may be understood as a blend creating a radial extension that substantially alters the category structure of the original source frame so that the blended space comes to be understood as a central instance of that category. Such an approach allows a fruitful analysis of the similarities and differences among three example blends: god is a rock, jesus is the messiah, and jesus is god.

References

Barcelona, Antonio. “The Metaphorical and Metonymic Understanding of the Trinitarian Dogma.” International Journal of English Studies 3, no. 1 (January 14, 2009): 1-28.Search in Google Scholar

Clark, Patrick M. “Without Metaphor, No Saving God: Theology after Cognitive Linguistics.” Modern Theology 31, no. 4 (October 2015): 698-700.10.1111/moth.12204Search in Google Scholar

Dalton, John. A New System of Chemical Philosophy. Vol. 1. Manchester/London: S. Russell for R. Bickerstaff, 1808.10.5479/sil.324338.39088000885681Search in Google Scholar

Dalton, John. “On the Absorption of Gases by Water and Other Liquids.” In Memoirs of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester, 2nd series, 1:271-87. Manchester/London: S. Russell for R. Bickerstaff, 1805.Search in Google Scholar

Dancygier, Barbara, and Eve Sweetser. Figurative Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.Search in Google Scholar

Fauconnier, Gilles. Mappings in Thought and Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.10.1017/CBO9781139174220Search in Google Scholar

Fauconnier, Gilles. Mental Spaces: Aspects of Meaning Construction in Natural Language. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.10.1017/CBO9780511624582Search in Google Scholar

Fauconnier, Gilles, and Mark Turner. The Way We Think: Conceptual Blending and the Mind’s Hidden Complexities. New York: Basic Books, 2002.Search in Google Scholar

Geeraerts, Dirk. Diachronic Prototype Semantics: A Contribution to Historical Lexicology. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997.Search in Google Scholar

Gerhart, Mary, and Allan Melvin Russell. Metaphoric Process: The Creation of Scientific and Religious Understanding. Fort Worth, TX: Texas Christian University Press, 1984.Search in Google Scholar

Gerhart, Mary, and Allan Melvin Russell. New Maps for Old: Explorations in Science and Religion. New York: Continuum, 2001. The Hymnal 1982: According to the Use of the Episcopal Church. New York: Church Hymnal Corporation, 1985.Search in Google Scholar

Lakoff, George. Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.10.7208/chicago/9780226471013.001.0001Search in Google Scholar

Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980.Search in Google Scholar

Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. Philosophy in the Flesh: The Embodied Mind and Its Challenge to Western Thought. New York: Basic Books, 1999.Search in Google Scholar

Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, Barbara. “Polysemy, Prototypes, and Radial Categories.” In The Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics, edited by Dirk Geeraerts and Hubert Cuyckens, 139-69. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.Search in Google Scholar

Masson, Robert. Without Metaphor, No Saving God: Theology after Cognitive Linguistics. Leuven: Peeters, 2014.Search in Google Scholar

McCabe, Herbert. God Matters. London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1987.Search in Google Scholar

McCabe, Herbert. “Sacramental Language.” Irish Theological Quarterly 43, no. 2 (June 1, 1976): 91-103.10.1177/002114007604300202Search in Google Scholar

McCabe, Herbert. “The Involvement of God.” New Blackfriars 66, no. 785 (November 1985): 464-76.10.1111/j.1741-2005.1985.tb06261.xSearch in Google Scholar

Sanders, John. Theology in the Flesh: How Embodiment and Culture Shape the Way We Think about Truth, Morality, and God. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2016.10.2307/j.ctt1b3t7k7Search in Google Scholar

Sullivan, Karen. Frames and Constructions in Metaphoric Language. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 2013.10.1075/cal.14Search in Google Scholar

Sweetser, Eve. From Etymology to Pragmatics: Metaphorical and Cultural Aspects of Semantic Structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990. Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologiae. 60 vols. London: Blackfriars, 1964.Search in Google Scholar

Tilley, Terrence W. “Without Metaphor, No Saving God: Theology after Cognitive Linguistics.” Horizons 42, no. 1 (June 2015): 179-80. 10.1017/hor.2015.15Search in Google Scholar

Woodward, Sarah Cazneau. Embroidery for Church Guilds. New York: James Pott & Co., 1896.Search in Google Scholar

Received: 2017-11-02
Accepted: 2017-12-15
Published Online: 2018-01-26

© 2018

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Downloaded on 27.9.2023 from https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/opth-2018-0007/html
Scroll to top button